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Global Climate Change DigestA Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone DepletionPublished July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 4, NUMBER 3, MARCH 1991

NEWS...CLIMATE CONVENTION and U.S. POLICY

The United States altered its
stance somewhat at the first of a series of meetings intended to develop an
international convention on climate, held February 4-14, 1991, near Washington,
D.C. However, those favoring rapid action and specific commitments to limit
greenhouse gases were disappointed that the 10-day event did little more than
establish procedural guidelines for future meetings.

In the first two days, delegates to the U.N. Intergovernmental Negotiating
Committee heard dozens of statements from representatives of individual
countries, U.N. agencies, and intergovernmental and nongovernmental
organizations. According to one observer, major proposals discussed were those
of Germany and Switzerland (which favor fast action), the United States (which
doesn't), and the United Kingdom (in the middle). Committee Chair Jean Ripert of
France said all parties agreed that the world will take a comprehensive approach
to controlling greenhouse gases, and that the extensive time spent on
establishing negotiating guidelines was necessary. According to the guidelines
adopted, the final convention should include controls on greenhouse gas
emissions, transfer of technology and financial resources to developing
countries, and international scientific and technological cooperation. A special
fund, totaling $1.45 million so far, was established to subsidize the
participation of delegates from developing countries.

Considerable time was also spent in controversy over the composition of two
principal working groups established, because that will influence future
negotiations. One will examine appropriate commitments for limiting greenhouse
emissions; the other will work on legal issues, and propose ways to transfer
technology and funds to developing nations for increasing energy efficiency and
protecting forests. The next meeting is scheduled for Nairobi in June 1991.

The United States position presented at the conference is described in America's
Climate Change Strategy. (See Reports/United States, this Global Climate
Change Digest issue--Mar. 1991.) Those critical of the U.S. welcomed its
acknowledgment that climate change is a problem, a change from the position
taken at previous international meetings. However, the strategy advocates
neither emission targets nor new policy responses as solutions. Instead, it
projects reductions in greenhouse warming potential that will result from
existing legislation and programs. These include CFC elimination under the
Montreal Protocol; reductions in tropospheric ozone expected from the 1990 Clean
Air Act Amendments; proposals for reforestation in the United States included in
the Administration's 1992 budget proposal; and energy efficiency and other
provisions of the Administration's National Energy Strategy. The warming impacts
of U.S. greenhouse emissions are expected to decrease to 1987 levels in the year
2000 because of these measures, although they will then begin to rise in the
absence of further action.

Critics of U.S. policy, such as environmental groups, the European Community
and small island nations highly susceptible to sea level rise, were joined by
several vocal members of Congress. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell and
others had introduced a Senate resolution Feb. 7, 1991, calling for the United
States to take the lead at the meeting in establishing specific targets for
emission reductions. Later, Mitchell was joined by Sen. Albert Gore and Rep.
Henry Waxman, among others, in expressing disdain with the Administration's
policy and disappointment over the outcome of the first round of negotiations.
On Feb. 5, Sen. Timothy Wirth introduced a bill, cosponsored by Gore and many
others, that is similar to S. 324, which passed the Senate last year but
received no action in the House. Among other things, it would require the
Department of Energy to develop a least-cost national energy plan to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions. Scenarios for reducing greenhouse emissions are
analyzed in a major study released Feb. 7 by the Office of Technology Assessment
at the request of several Congressional committees. (See Reports/United States,
this Global Climate Change Digest issue--Mar. 1991.)